Let Them Die in Peace

LET THEM DIE IN PEACE

Introduction: A person who doesn't wish to endure all the suffering that goes with a life threatening disease should not have too.

I. Euthanasia/Assisted Suicide

A. History

B. My opinion

II. Where it is Legal

A. Australia

B. Belgium

C. Netherlands

D. Oregon

E. Other places

F. My opinion

III. Why I am for it

A. Costs

B. Euthanasia packs

C. Persons/doctors decision

Conclusion:

 In March 2005, my daughter's grandfather, Hank, passed away. At the age of thirty, the doctors diagnosed Hank with a rare kidney and blood disease. Since being diagnosed with these life-threatening diseases, he outlived the doctor's expectations three times. In the last eight years of his life, a person could tell that the disease was getting worst. In the last four years, Hank underwent a leg amputation due to ulcers on his legs, dialysis twice a week, fluid pumped from his body once a month, multiple heart attacks, three strokes, and developed diabetes. Hank constantly prayed that he could end his suffering, hoping that every time he visited a hospital it would be the last. In March, Hank's prayers were finally answered. After coming home form a hospital visit, he made some phone calls to his family and gave his wallet to his eldest daughter, Wendy. Two hours after we talked to him on the phone, Wendy called us and said that he died due to another heart attack. She also told us that he kissed his family, which lived with him, told them good-bye and said he was going to end his suffering. Hank went to his bedroom, locked his door, and had his final heart attack. For eight years, I have seen this man stay alive by taking over sixty pills a day, and go through his home dialysis. I have also undergone numerous trips to the hospital because of the heart attacks he has had. In my opinion, a person who doesn't wish to endure all the suffering that goes with a life threatening disease should not have too. I think they should legalize euthanasia for people that suffer from a life-threatening, incurable disease.

The dispute on euthanasia/assisted suicide goes as far back as the Ancient Greek and Rome. Well-known philosophers, such as Plato, Aristotle, Stoics, Pythagoras, and Epicurus, all had their personal point of view on suicide. Plato condemned suicide on the grounds that he who commits the act, "from sloth or want of manliness imposes upon himself an unjust penalty [of death]." (Gorsuch 11) Aristotle conceded that choosing one's own death may not impose any injustice on third persons. (Gorsuch 11) Stoics ironically considered suicide an acceptable response to physical adversity. (Gorsuch 11) Pythagoras strongly opposed suicide. (Gorsuch 11) Epicurus was less concerned with the liberty to commit suicide than he was skeptical that suicide could ever be the product of rational choice. (Gorsuch 11) The Roman law was a little more lenient than the Athenian law. The Athenian law described suicide as a crime; the Roman law was permitted to the terminally ill. (Gorsuch 11, 12) As the centuries pass by, people became more accepting towards suicide. The penalties for suicide have lightened a little, but the principle remained the same. The law stated that any intentional suicide was condemned as a wrongful act. If the suicide was unintentional acts of self-killing, it was considered not a crime. (Gorsuch 13) In the seventeen and eighteen hundreds the suicide law was dropped and was no longer a criminal offence. (Gorsuch 15) It was just considered morally wrong. In the past, people realized, over time, that committing suicide due to an illness was not punishable. Considering technology, in those times they didn't have the medical advances that we do today. Back then, a person could easily die from a little cut and that would be considered a deadly illness; today we would put a little peroxide and a band-aid on a cut and be fine. In addition, in this age, many diseases have been discovered, that they never knew about back then. If it was all right back then to commit suicide, due to an illness that we can easily cure today, why isn't it all right to legalize euthanasia/assisted suicide in more then a handful of places today for the more complex, incurable diseases?

On July 1, 1996, the very first report of legalized voluntary euthanasia/assisted suicide was in the Northern Territory of Australia. In March of 1997, making euthanasia/assisted suicide legal for a nine-month period, the law was over thrown. Four people legally committed suicide while the Bill was in effect. (Assisted Suicide in Australia's Northern Territory 1) In May 2002, Belgium legalized active euthanasia/assisted suicide. In this country, it is allowed for an adult with "an incurable, accidental, or pathological illness" and "constant and insupportable physical or psychical sufferings" who